For as long as humans beings have lived, they have interacted with very few people. Maybe 100 or sometimes 200.
Once cities started forming, your village expanded. But really, cities also interacted with very few people. You did not meet X family, who were living on the other side of town
This environment meant that your behaviour was shaped on familiarity. You knew the other person and you knew how they will react to your behaviour. Vice versa they knew you.
Cut to the modern day social media. Maybe last 20 years. You have suddenly begun to reach thousand and maybe even millions. They watch what you look like, what you are wearing, what you do, what you say, how you say it and how you behave. They don’t know you and yet they know you now. You don’t know them and yet you are giving the messages to which they will react.
But the problem is your messaging has not changed. You are giving them messages in the same time honoured way. Your psychology and social understanding has not changed, as formed over a million years of social contact.
Evolution does not change in twenty or thirty years. You are designed for a different time, living in a very visible and unfamiliar environment.
Hence the daily wrath created on social media. There has to be much friction. Hence the grouping of a particular type of audience, which re confirms what you are thinking. These groups can bunch together due to political views, maybe cultural views, possibly sports related views, gender ones etc. But they are fairly narrow and typically deal with a facet of life. Not an all around coming together of many topics. Therefore, even in these groups there will be friction. You might agree with political views, but maybe you support a different football club, which therefore still leads to friction.
At the moment we are not ready to solve this, nor do we have the wherewithal to solve it. Left on evolutionary means it might take a few hundred years. I foresee that as many more powerful and rich people rely more and more on this social media, it might one day bring the world to the edge of destruction. That is how important and destructive this topic is.
For myself, where I was very active on all forums, I have now taken a safer route and withdrawn from almost all of it. It is much less stressful and also leaves me time to live my life as I want to.
